Friday, May 28, 2010

We've definitely surpassed 150 letters this week, so thank you to everyone who has written to Senator Durbin! The momentum is building, and I have faith this is going to ultimately result in getting Carlos home to us.

Last night I had a really productive and encouraging conversation with someone I would consider an expert in pushing private legislation. She helped me start brainstorming lots of ideas for the next few steps. I'll keep you all updated on how to help, so for now let's keep finding Illinois voters to send letters to Senator Durbin. Thank you all!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

OK, everybody, here we go! We're asking everyone to send letters to Senator Durbin at his Chicago and his Washington offices. All the details are on our "Ways to Help" tab. You can access sample letters and addresses there.

We are so grateful for the outpouring of support. New followers of this page, new followers on Twitter, and, last I checked, more than 90 people connected to our page on Facebook in the first day it went live. We are SO thankful for your support and enthusiasm and we're anxious to put all this positive energy to good use!

Monday, May 24, 2010

After several weeks (OK, let's be honest, YEARS) of roller-coaster moments, we have been encouraged that the time has come to urge Senator Durbin to sponsor private relief on our behalf. We've tried all the avenues, and we've tried waiting patiently, but no more. We are calling for this to end NOW, and the right way. This is scary because of how daunting it is, but exciting because we finally get to involve all of you who have been faithfully standing behind us ready to act all this time.

So here's your chance. It's all going to come down to letters and phone calls. Lots of them. We are finalizing a draft of a sample letter that you can send. We'll let you know when it's ready and where/when/how to send it. But in the meantime, you can help us by connecting to our Facebook Page and/or our Twitter account where we'll be posting updates to keep everyone informed on where we're at in the process of drawing attention to our cause.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

So maybe I exaggerated when I said the blog re-design was just about ready to be rolled out. Sometimes I think I'm more capable of awesomeness than I truly am. And sometimes I wonder why I insist on doing things myself, and having them come out *JUST PERFECT*, and waiting until that elusive standard of perfection is achieved before I release my project to the world. This statement applies to my approach to our immigration battle, by the way, and I think it's unfortunate.

I'm not sure where things changed. I remember a time when I was a lot less concerned about things. Let's start with Barcelona, where Carlos and I discovered that our original goal was not going to be attainable. So we said, "Hey, let's explore Europe and then move to Mexico." I actually remember the moment when we had that conversation, sitting on an ancient Roman wall in the Barri Gòtic, watching some backpacker slink by, shoeless and slouchy-shouldered. "Could we end up like that?" we wondered. Didn't want to find out.

Plotting our adventures from our balcony in Poble Sec

So we walked back to our temporary flat, 3rd (but in American terms, 4th) floor with no elevator, where the other bedrooms were occupied by a French couple (he was settling in to study for a semester, she was headed back to Lyon), a Swedish couple (they pretty much slept all day and were gone all night, standard for Barcelona), and a revolving door involving some Czechs and a Polish girl from Chicago. Everything felt remarkably easy and un-complicated then.

And we booked a flight from Brussels to Cancun to make our move to Mexico. Travel within Europe is cheap; we would connect the dots from Barcelona to Brussels as we go. Which is exactly what we did. That month and a half was unforgettable.

For example, when we decided to spend a week in Rome, we didn't feel like spending a lot of time looking for accommodations. We found a place online that was basically a glorified campsite for backpackers. Besides traditional tent lots, this place boasted tiny private one-room trailer units with a full bathroom and a couple beds in each. For something like €26 a night, you just can't beat the price. On the plus side, the camp came complete with its own bar/restaurant, swimming pool, laundry facilities, and a supermarket right across the street, all right near central Rome. On the downside, after a certain time of day, bus service to the street where the camp was located became spotty, so the only way to return home was to run along a high-speed roadway for several blocks, often without a sidewalk or even shoulder, in the dark, risking your life to save the taxi fare.

Carlos sits on his bed studying some Italian verbs, a few inches away from the bathroom

The point is, at that time perfection was the farthest thing from my mind. We were just having a great time. I guess it's all fun and games until someone gets banned from the US for life.

So I've recently decided it's time to stop trying to be perfect. I have a family to reunite and our time is running out. I'm going to start seeking the help of those who are better at things than I am. And then I'm just going to hope for the best.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

I'm finally accomplishing one of my goals, which is to get this blog updated for the new decade and the fight ahead. I'm a little behind on that goal, but hopefully within the next few days I can check it off my list. So, there's a redesign that's about 70% completed, and I'll be adding some new resources. In the meantime I'm changing some settings with the feed and trying to fix up some old posts, so I apologize for any emails of old posts that have come your way if you're an email subscriber. Hopefully it won't happen any more.

By the way, we're back from Mexico (obviously) and have been for several weeks. It was a good trip in the sense that we were all together. However, our collective tolerance for Monterrey has long passed its limit, and we're anxious for Carlos to get out of there. Hence a renewed sense of purpose for the fight.

us

Married since May 2007, parents since December 2008, we held our little family together across the US-Mexican border for over three years. After facing the reality that living together in the US wouldn't be possible, we moved on to adventures together in South Korea for a few years, and now have returned to our passport countries to push once and for all to bring Carlos home.

Here, I blog about our adventures in parenting, travel, multilingualism, maintaining multiple cultures while living abroad, immigration, policy, and keeping it all together while we confront this process.